Hispanic Entrepreneurship in a Global City: The Bolivian Diaspora in Washington, DC

Abstract

Purpose – This study examines Hispanic entrepreneurship in the context of global city formation by focusing on metropolitan Washington and the entrepreneurial activities of Bolivian immigrants, a small but significant Latino immigrant population.

Methodology – Employing a mixed methodology of analysis of census data, mapping, and conducting surveys and focus groups, this research highlights the socio-economic characteristics of Bolivians, the spatial patterning of residential settlement and business locations, as well as the network strategies the group employs.

Findings – Metropolitan Washington is the hub for the Bolivian diaspora in the United States. This group distinguishes itself with higher levels of education, income, and self-employment among Hispanics as a whole. Yet despite their economic and educational attainment, they are overly concentrated in certain sectors and experience blocked mobility that manifests itself through greater interest in self-employment and entrepreneurship. The study concludes that by developing businesses that serve both the ethnic community and the larger non-Hispanic population, Bolivians have had certain economic success.

Social implications – Strategies of residential concentration along with well-developed social networks maintain the ethnic community as well as support transnational linkages to towns and villages back in Bolivia.

Citation

Price, M.D. (2012), "Hispanic Entrepreneurship in a Global City: The Bolivian Diaspora in Washington, DC", Pumar, E.S. (Ed.) Hispanic Migration and Urban Development: Studies from Washington DC (Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 133-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-7449(2012)0000017009